July 11, 1993: 10-year-old Andrea Gail Parsons of Port Salerno disappears while walking to her home on Ebbtide Avenue from a grocery store where she bought candy and chips. She is last seen about 6 p.m. on Commerce Avenue waving to friends passing by in a car.

July 15, 1993: Claude Davis, a neighbor of Andrea's, tells investigators he saw some Hispanic men grab Andrea off the street and put her in the back of an older-model Oldsmobile.

Nov. 16, 1993: Davis tells investigators he had a dream in which Andrea fell off a trash bin and died. He says he put her body in another bin at Phipps Park. Taking Davis' story as fact, detectives arrest him for false imprisonment. Bail is set at $250,000.

Dec. 1, 1993: At a bail reduction hearing, a detective testifies Davis told a neighbor about kidnapping and killing Andrea.

April 14, 1994: Davis is released from the Martin County Jail after pleading no contest to charges of molesting a 14-year-old girl.

May 12, 1994: Andrea's 11th birthday.

May 25, 1994: A judge dismisses the false imprisonment charge against Davis because prosecutors failed to take Davis to trial within the time allowed by Florida's "Speedy Trial Law."

MARTIN COUNTY — Claude Davis is untouchable in the disappearance of 10-year-old Andrea Gail Parsons.

For almost two decades, Davis, 76, was the prime suspect in the 1993 missing person case of the Port Salerno girl.

But that changed on Nov. 29 when he testified before a grand jury that he witnessed former county resident Chester Duane Price, 42, kill Andrea.

Price, of Haleyville, Ala., is charged with kidnapping of a child under age 13 and first-degree murder in the girl's presumed death. He is being held without bail at the Martin County Jail.

Davis' 1993 arrest for false imprisonment of the girl was dismissed after prosecutors failed to formally charge him in a timely manner. Prosecutors said they lacked sufficient evidence to get a conviction.

Even with new evidence, Davis now cannot be prosecuted for his role in the case. Many wonder why.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl said the legal principle of estoppel — not double jeopardy — prevents the state from charging Davis. Estoppel means the state is stopped and loses the right to try Davis for anything connected to the case because the time for a speedy trial ran out before evidence could be collected to convict him.

"Law enforcement made a premature arrest in 1993," Bakkedahl said last week to Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers.

Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder declined to comment on evidence detectives collected in the 1993 case against Davis and referred questions to the State Attorney's Office.

"This investigation, including involvement by Claude Davis, is ongoing. The members of this agency must maintain the integrity of the investigation," Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Rhonda Irons wrote in an email.

The case

Andrea disappeared on July 11, 1993, after buying penny candy and chips at Bucky's Port Salerno Grocery Store, about two blocks from her Southeast Ebbtide Avenue home.

Three days later, investigators got what they thought to be a break in the case that would later become an obstacle.

Davis, who lived across the street from Andrea, came forward saying he saw four Hispanic men stuff the girl in a car, recalled Sheriff-elect William Snyder, then a captain in the Sheriff's Office detectives' bureau.

However, Davis later changed the story several times.In one version Davis said he was collecting aluminum cans with Andrea in Phipps Park when she fell and hit her head. In another, Davis said he placed the 80-pound girl on the floor in the back of his van and disposed of her in a trash bin.

Snyder said Davis' statement that he discarded the girl's dead body was enough for detectives to arrest him.

"The standard for probable cause is that you have reasonable suspicion — you have circumstances that would lead a reasonable person to believe a crime had occurred," he said.

He was held in lieu of $250,000 bond but the State's Attorney Office did not file any formal charges. Law enforcement can arrest on probable cause, a belief that a crime has been committed, but the State's Attorney Office decides what formal charges to file.

Snyder defended the arrest saying detectives had evidence from Davis showing a crime had occurred.

"We had more than enough evidence to show probable cause for an arrest that he abducted that girl," Snyder said. "The choices we had were not make an arrest or wait for more information. The choices we had were make an arrest or close the case and do nothing."

Detectives continued to pursue tips that didn't pan out, such as searching commercial trash bins and landfill.

They never found Andrea.

University of Florida law school professor George R. "Bob" Dekle Sr. said sometimes in criminal cases an arrest is made before prosecutors have an evidence to secure a conviction. Investigators would use the time between an arrest and a trial date to find evidence that strengthens their case.

"More times than not it works out that you get the evidence while you're waiting for trial," said Dekle, a retired 30 year prosecutor. "But when it doesn't you wind up with an unprosecutable case."

During the investigation detectives found evidence Davis had sex with a 14-year-old neighbor. They charged him with two counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 16.

Davis' attorney, Robert Udell, in February 1994 filed two motions: one to release Davis on his own recognizance and the second for a speedy trial on the false imprisonment arrest. The speedy trial motion demanded the state go to trial or dismiss the case.

"We recognized very quickly that they didn't have a strong case against him," said Udell, now a Hawaii resident and a former attorney who worked pro bono with Davis' public defender.

Under rules governing criminal legal procedure, a defendant must be released from custody if the state doesn't file formal charges within 40 days of an arrest. Under rules governing speedy trial, prosecutors have 175 days after an arrest to file formal charges or forever lose the right to prosecute for the offense. More than 90 days had passed since Davis' arrest.

Most defendants waive their right to a speedy trial to give their attorney time to mount a defense against the charges, Dekle said.

"A criminal case is not like fine wine: It does not get better with age," Dekle said. "The more a trial lags on, it benefits the defendant as witnesses' memories fades or witnesses move away, and its harder for prosecutor to find them. If you are a defendant you want the trial to lag on."

On April 14, Davis was release from jail without posting bail for false imprisonment offense. But he plead no contest to the molestation charges, posted a $100,000 bail and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

Dismissal

On May 9, 1994, three days before Andrea's 11th birthday, the 175 day time limit for a speedy trial expired for the false imprisonment offense.

"We were screaming, 'You have to cut him loose,'" Udell recalled during an interview. "If the case came to trial, they would have lost because they didn't have any evidence."

Chief Circuit Judge Steven Levin, who in 1993 was an assistant state attorney prosecuting the case, said the state had to drop the case because there wasn't any evidence that could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Davis was involved in Andrea's disappearance.

"There was insufficient evidence," Levin said. "So, ethically we were forbidden from going forward with the charge," Levin said.

Snyder maintains detectives had enough evidence to arrest Davis.

"What were we going to do with Claude Davis, who said he had her in the van and had disposed of her?" Snyder said. "If the State Attorney's Office thinks the arrest was premature, then what did they think we should do more?"

Dekle said the questions surrounding the strength of evidence collected has to do with the difference in the burden of proof need to make an arrest and what the state must prove to get a conviction.

"There's a big difference between evidence needed for probable cause to make an arrest and evidence needed for proof beyond a reasonable doubt that prosecutors need for a conviction," Dekle said.

Davis received a court order dated May 25, 1994 dismissing the case.

"The defendant shall be forever discharged from the crime of false imprisonment in the above case," the order stated.

However, in 1999, Davis was sentenced to nine years in prison when he violated terms of his probation by contacting the victim in the molestation case.